


Crash

by awkwardly_living



Series: Gifts [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AND THAT, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Car Accidents, Character Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Gift Work, Half Of These Tags Are Just My Random Comments, Hurt, Hurt Lance (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, I Just Saw That Tag And It Made Me Laugh So I Added It, I'm A Doctor Not A, I'm Bad At Tagging, I'm Sorry, It Has No Relevance To The Story, Keith tries to help, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, M/M, There's A Tag For That, They all need hugs, Why is the Rum Gone?, i can't believe, obviously, please help, pls help, wtq
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-22 15:26:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15584928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awkwardly_living/pseuds/awkwardly_living
Summary: -------ok, so McClain kids ages:Veronica [Ronnie]- 24Marco [Marc]- 21Lance- 17Isa [she's adopted btw]- 14 [i originally accidentally wrote 114 and thought it was funny so here ya go a look behind the scenes lol]Luis and Sora [twins]- 8[and Keith's 18 btw]-------Also, i miiight've added a few easter eggs/references to a few other fandoms i'm in, so if ya see them, let me know :P-------Basically ish happens and Lance is sad and Keith tries to help. [i love these boys too much, help]





	Crash

**Author's Note:**

  * For [teddybeare12](https://archiveofourown.org/users/teddybeare12/gifts).



> hAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR TEDDY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!  
> so, [@teddybeare12] seeing as I don't know you irl [which frankly sucks but anyway], I decided to write you something instead for your birthday. yes, this is why I asked you what your favorite klance troupe[s] was[were]. seeing as I wasn't exactly sure how to write the whole texting thing in a one-shot, I decided to go down the angst path. so basically my normal path lol. So, I hope you like it, and I hope you have a fantastic birthday!
> 
> also just a warning, there is slight reference to homophobia and a homophobic slur towards the end, but it's very brief.

     "Ugh, this project is going to kill me!" Lance whined, flopping back on his bed.

     Keith looked down at him, amused, and said, "Well, maybe it'd go faster if you stopped taking so many breaks and complaining about it every other second." Lance glared up at him, eliciting a laugh from the other teen. Keith swatted at Lance's shoulder. "Come on; we just have to finish this part to be done for the day."

     Lance groaned and sat up. "Fiiiine, but you're buying us Dunkin tomorrow. And driving."

     Keith snorted and replied, "Deal."

     The two worked on their project for nearly a half hour before the door was pushed open, and Isa poked her head into the room.

     "Oh, hey, Keith. Dinner's ready," she said before disappearing again. 

    Lance got up and stretched, yawning. He waited for a moment as Keith quickly semi-organized their pile of papers. Keith then closed his laptop and stood, turning at the middle to crack his back. Lance grimaced.

     "Ugh, I can't believe you still do that," he said. 

     "Well, I can't believe you're still weirded out by it. A lot of people crack their backs, Lance."

     "Yeah, well a lot of people are weird. That's unnatural, Keith! I mean, your back shouldn't be making those... those... noises!" Lance theatrically shuddered and took Keith's hand, leading them out of the room. 

     Keith rolled his eyes. "You'd change your mind if you actually tried it, Lance." 

      "That's what you said about that crazy hiking trail too, and guess who's /still/ tramautized for life from that? Me, that's who!" Lance flailed his free arm around as he spoke.

     "Goodness gracious, do you two ever stop bickering?" Mrs. McClain said as they sat down at the dinner table. 

     "Hey, at least we're not as bad as Marc and Ronnie!" Lance protested. 

     "I mean, he's not wrong," Isa said, rolling her wheelchair next to Lance's chair. Mrs. McClain nodded with a chuckle. She stood behind the head of the table. 

     "Isa, you told the twins it was time for dinner, right?" She said. Isa nodded. "Hm." She went over to the foot of the stairs and yelled up, "Luis! Sora! Dinner time!" A moment later, a young girl's voice called, "Be right down, mama!" Footsteps sounded as the two kids ran down the stairs and into the dining room. 

    Lance burst out laughing. "Sora, how on earth did you get paint all over you?"

    "And how is Luis perfectly clean?" Isa added with a chuckle of her own.

     Mrs. McClain held Sora up and said with a laugh, "Yes, I would quite like to hear this story as well."

     "We were finger painting, mama!" the small girl exclaimed with a large grin. Their mother set her down, taking her hand. 

     "I told her to change and clean herself up, but she didn't listen," Luis muttered. Mrs. McClain chuckled. 

     "Come on, silly, let's get cleaned up." She and Sora disappeared upstairs, Mrs. McClain pausing to tell the others to start eating. Luis sat down on the other side of the table, and the other three grabbed some taco casserole and dug in. 

     A few minutes later, Mrs. McClain returned with a cleaned up Sora. Sora sat down next to Luis. "Hey, why didn't you eat yet?" she asked him.

     He shrugged. "I wanted to wait for you." Sora grinned and side-hugged her twin. 

     Dinner ended a little while later, everyone fully satisfied and unable to eat another bite. 

     "That was delicious, mama," Isa said, finishing off her iced tea. The others quickly agreed. Lance and Keith cleaned up and did the dishes, it being Lance's turn to anyway.  After the dishes were finally all packed in the dishwasher or set out to dry, Sora and Luis went up to their older brother.

     "Lan! Keith! Help us paint!" Sora said, an adorable grin. Lance looked over at Keith in a questioning manner. Keith just shrugged.

     "Well, I guess we can't just say no, can we?" he asked. Sora quickly shook her head with a giggle and grabbed the boys' hands, dragging them all the way up to her and Luis's shared room. There was a large plastic table cover spread out on the floor with paints, paper towels, and paper strewn across it.

     "Come on!" she called, handing them each a tiny smock before pulling one over her head. She and Luis sat on the plastic cover and grabbed pieces of paper. Lance shrugged at Keith and sat down, his boyfriend following a moment later. 

     "Um, what do I do again?" Keith asked, looking around confusedly. The three McClains gaped at him. 

     "You've never finger painted before?" Sora exclaimed. 

     "...No?" 

     "Wow, this is a crime, Keith, a true travesty. C'mon, Sor, we gotta show him how it's done!" Lance said, grinning as he poured some paint onto a paper plate before, to Keith's horror, sticking his hand in the paint. Sora grinned and did the same, and in unison, they plopped their paint-covered hands onto blank sheets of paper. Luis, however, took a more laid back approach, and dipped a finger in the paint, creating a swirly design on his paper. 

     After a minute, Sora noticed Keith still just watching. She grabbed a piece of paper with her clean hand and shoved it onto his lap. "Come on, Keef!" He chuckled and plopped his hand into the paint Lance had spilled onto the plate. She cheered as he made his mark on the paper. He smiled back as she grinned at him. 

      Later that night, Lance and Keith lay in bed, staring up at the glow-in-the-dark stars that littered Lance's ceiling. 

     "I like your family," Keith said quietly. Lance looked over at him, a bit surprised at the sudden comment. 

     "Yeah?"

      "Yeah. They're always so... nice."

      Lance smiled and turned back to the ceiling. "Well they like you too. Especially Sor. That girl adores you, you know."

     "Really?"

     Lance chuckled. "Yeah, she's always asking when you're gonna come over again."

      Keith smiled. "Maybe I should hang out with her instead then, seeing as she's more excited for me to come over then you are."

      Lance scoffed and shoved his shoulder playfully. They lay there for a while before finally getting settled to go to sleep.

      "Goodnight, Lance."

      "Goodnight, Keith. Sweet dreams."

-^-^-^-

     A few weeks later, the McClain household was busy. Veronica, her husband, Marco, Keith, Pidge, and Hunk had come over to help Mrs. McClain and Isa set up the house for the twins' ninth birthday party. There weren't too many people who'd be there. Seeing as the McClains had a huge extended family, they had a big birthday celebration for everyone at the annual family reunion. 

     Lance had gotten out of set up duties by being the one to take the twins out for the afternoon. They were having a blast at a local arcade when Lance got a call. He had the twins play some game that he didn't need to really supervise them with, answered the phone.

      "Yeah?" 

      "You're all good to come back," Keith said over the phone. 

      "Awesome, we'll be there in about twenty minutes!" After he hung up, he went over to the kids. "Hey, sorry, guys, but something's come up. We'll have to go sooner then I thought."

     Sora stepped off the Dance Dance Revolution pad [DDR had always been a hit with almost all of the McClains] and pouted. "Really? But it's our birthday, Lan!"

     Lance's heart fell. "I know, dragonette, but Mama wants us to get home. Hey, maybe she's making your favorite dinner tonight!"

     Sora turned the poutting up to 100. "Can we at least have two more tries at Dance Dance? Pleeease?" Luis came up on her side, and she nudged him, causing him to half-heartedly add in his own puppy dog eyes to the equation.

     Lance tried to stay strong; he really did, but when it came to his little siblings, he was weak. "Ok, ok, fine. Two more, but that's it, and only because I love you."

     "Yay!" Sora hugged him and raced back to the game, pulling Luis with her. Lance sighed and pulled out his phone, tapping out a text to Keith explaining that they'd be a bit late. 

      -^-^-^-

     Five games of DDR later, Lance was finally putting his foot down and ignoring the puppy dog eyes that had already led to the extra three games. 

     "Nope, come on, dragonettes, time to go!" he said marching forward as well as he could with a twin clinging to each leg. The two finally got up and let him go after he almost tripped and was left flailing to stay upright. They reluctantly got in the car, Sora merrily kicking the back of Lance's seat. 

     "Thank you for taking us, Lan! We had fun, right, Luis?" From the front mirror, Lance could see Sora looking at her twin expectantly. Luis "mhm'ed" in agreement. "I can't hear youuu," Sora said in a sing-song voice, smirking. 

     Luis sighed. "Yes, Sora, we did." He said it flippantly, but when Luis turned slightly away from his sister, Lance saw a small smile stretch across his face.

     Lance shook his head, amused, before saying, "Alright, last check! Seatbelts all on?" 

     "Yup!"

     "Uh-huh."

     "Everybody have everything they brought with them?"

     "I only brought myself!"

     "But didn't Lance really bring us?"

     "Shh, it's a saying!"

     Lance laughed and said, "Ok, here we go!" 

     They had been driving for only a few minutes, when the lanes started to be crowded. 

     "Ah, crap," Lance said under his breath. 

     "What's wrong?" Sora asked.

     "Nothing, Sor. Just a bit of traffic. We'll be home in no time," he said with a smile cast her way via the mirror. "Hey, why don't we listen to the radio? We can even sing along if you want."

     "Yeah!" Sora yelled, sitting up. Even Luis looked a bit excited. Lance reached over to turn the radio on as he turned left. He looked down for a second and a moment and a scream later, he saw nothing. 

-^-^-^-

     Pain. Pain was all Lance felt, floating in nothingness as he slowly became more aware. There was a faint beeping and soft hiss that reached his ears. He groaned quietly as pain all over his body became more present. He felt a slight pressure on his hand and heard someone say, "Lance? Can you hear me?" Lance moved his head to the side, his eyelids still too heavy to open his eyes. "I'm sorry, what was that?" 

     "You're loud," Lance finally croaked, his throat sore. He heard a small snort, and he finally cracked open his eyes. As his sight started to unblur, he recognized the violet eyes looking back at him. "Keith," he breathed, tears slowly building up in his eyes.

     Keith tightened his grip on Lance's hand and squeezed. "I'm right here, Lance. It's alright; you're going to be ok." 

     Lances eyes slipped shut again. "Hurts," he said quietly. 

     "I know, Lance, I know, but it's going to be ok, alright? I called a nurse in, and they should be able to help." Keith rubbed the back of the teen's hand with his thumb.

     "H-how-" Lance was interrupted by a coughing fit. "How did you call someone in? I didn't hear you."

     "There's a remote thingy next to you that has a button to call someone in." 

     "Tell them to hurry up." Keith grimaced sympathetically and brushed the hair back from Lance's forehead. 

      A minute later, a nurse walked in saying, "Keith, wha- Oh my gosh he's finally awake! I'll go get Dr. Solace." They scurried back out of the room even as Keith sputtered to call them back. 

      "Keith?" 

      Keith looked down to see Lance's eyes open again and trained to his face. "What is it, Lance? You should rest your voice; the doctor said your throat would probably hurt when you woke up." 

      "What happened?"

      Keith froze for a moment before forcing a small smile he hoped was reassuring. "Rest, Lance."

      "But-"

      "Rest," Keith said in a tone that made Lance realize that he wasn't backing down. Lance closed his eyes and tried to ignore the pain and the annoying plastic in his nose that he assumed was a breathing aid. Rest. Yeah, he  could do that. He'd just close his eyes until the doctor arrived. 

-^-^-^-

     Lance wasn't aware that he had fallen asleep until he was brought back into the waking world by someone lightly tapping his forehead. He slowly opened his eyes to see a man smiling back at him. The man was in a white coat and scrubs, causing Lance to assume that he was the doctor.

     "Hey, Lance, good to see you're finally awake. I'm Dr. Solace, and my team's been taking care of you for the past week. How are you feeling?" 

     Lance's brows scrunched up in confusion. "Past week? But I don't remember-" he stopped, trying to figure out how much he  _did_ remember. "Wa-was I out for a whole week? What- How-"

     Keith shushed him quietly and rubbed his hand gently. "Hey, you're ok, stay calm for me, alright?"

     Lance's gaze shifted to his boyfriend. "What happened? Keith?"

     The doctor and Keith exchanged a look. "Why don't we focus on getting you feeling a bit better first, alright?" Dr. Solace suggested.

     "No! I just woke up in a hospital; everything hurts; and i don't know what fricking happened! Please, I just-I just want to know what happened," Lance pleaded, tears coming to his eyes. 

     "Lance, I understand that you're scared, and that you're really confused and in pain, but you're going to have to wait for just a little until we can get you completely stable and run a few tests to make sure there's no lasting brain damage other than a small lapse of memory. Can you do that for me?" Dr. Solace said, calmly and reassuringly. Lance took a deep breath and nodded. "Alright, good. Let's get you a bit more comfortable and then we can do a few tests."

-^-^-^-

     Nearly an hour later, the doctor finally left the room. Lance was half-sitting up, lying back against the now-raised hospital bed. His pain level had significantly gone down. His mother had arrived a little after Dr. Solace had come in, and Isa had come with her. 

     "So, are you finally going to tell me what all happened?" Lance said, frustration in his voice. All three pairs of eyes in the room avoided his. 

     "Well, what's the last thing you remember?" Keith asked, finally looking back up at him and taking his hand.

     Lance paused for a moment. "I-I think I was at the arcade? I can't-I can't remember why."

     "You were in a car crash, Lance," Isa said, resting her had on his leg-the one that wasn't in a cast, that is.

     "Car crash... Yeah, yeah I remember; I was driving home." Lance felt like he was missing something, a big something. "B-but why didn't you want to tell me?" Mrs. McClain flinched, and Isa looked down. Keith looked... Well... He looked heartbroken. 

      "Lance, I need you to stay calm, ok?" Keith said squeezing his hand lightly. Lance nodded hesitantly, taking a deep breath. "Try to remember. Why were you at the arcade?" 

      The teen didn't say anything for a while, just squeezing his eyes shut and trying desperately to think back to a week ago. Suddenly, it hit him. "The twins. Oh my gods, the twins! Where are they? Are they ok? Oh gods, oh my gods," he gasped out. He was shaking, trying to catch his breath as he spiraled into a panic. Keith was standing at his side in an instant, shushing him softly and trying to get him to calm down. 

      "Lance, I need you to focus on my voice for a second, ok? You're alright; you're safe," Keith said, rubbing the teens arms gently. Mrs. McClain took Lance's hand and squeezed it, unable to speak. Isa just looked away in an effort to hide her tears. 

      "Mama?" Lance questioned weakly, tears filling his eyes. His mother broke, tears flowing freely from her eyes as she rushed forward to hug him as best she could. 

     "I'm so sorry," she sobbed. "My precious boy, I'm so sorry." Lance looked at Keith over her shoulder questioningly. He guessed what this all meant, but he couldn't accept it. He needed to believe that the twins would be waiting for him at home, all safe and sound. He looked at his boyfriend for confirmation of that hope, but he saw Keith look at him so brokenly, and he knew. 

     "No, no! Th-they have to be- They can't have-" Lance's words drifted off. 

     "I-I'm so sorry, Lance. Luis is mostly alright, but Sora.."

      Lance let out a sob and buried his face in his mother's shoulder.

     Isa met Keith's gaze and tried to give him some sort of reassurance, but she just broke back into tears.

-^-^-^-

     A few days later, Lance was finally discharged. Keith and Mrs. McClain helped him inside and set him down on the living room couch. 

     "Do you want anything, hon?" his mother asked.

     Lance shook his head. "I kinda just want to go to bed."

     Mrs. McClain sighed. "Alright. We can borrow Isa's wheelchair to get you up there."

     "Or I can carry you up," Keith offered.

     "You sure?" Lance asked, finally looking up at him.

     Keith nodded in affirmation, crouching in front of the couch to allow Lance access to his back. Once the teen was secure enough, Keith headed up the stairs, carrying Lance on his back piggy-back style. They reached Lance's room after only a few near-falls, and Keith set Lance down on the bed. Lance avoided Keith's eyes, hating to be such a burden on him. 

     "Hey," Keith said, causing Lance to finally look up at him. "Don't do that." Lance's eyebrows furrowed as he went to reply, but Keith cut him off. "Don't pull away and blame everything on yourself. None of this is on you. None of it. The guy who hit you had gone illegally through a red light. You did nothing wrong."

     Lance dropped his gaze back to the floor. "If I had just left when I was supposed to, or hadn't looked down to turn on the radio, this... Sora..." He cut himself off, squeezing his eyes shut. He had cried enough in the past few days, and he was not about to have  _another_ breakdown in front of Keith. He felt the bed dip as Keith sat next to him, not quite touching him, but close enough to feel his presence. 

     "It might help to talk about it," Keith said softly. Lance didn't reply for a while, eyes glancing around the room. Finally, he sighed and leaned over to rest his head on Keith's shoulder. Keith responded by wrapping an arm around him, pulling him into his side. The two sat in silence a few minutes longer, basking in each other's presence. 

     "It should have been me," Lance said, catching Keith off guard. 

     "Wh-what?"

     "I should've died instead of Sora," the teen replied matter-of-factly. 

     Keith pulled away slightly to look Lance in the face. "Why would you say that? Do you know the devastation that would have caused m-us? I mean, yes, it's... horrible what did happen, but you can't wish this on yourself."

     A few tears leaked from Lance's eyes. "She was so... so loved, and had so much potential. Why did it have to be her? Why did she get taken from us? Di-di I do something wrong? Wh-why did she have to die, Keith?" Keith's heart broke for the boy sitting next to him. He pulled Lance into his chest, kissing his head softly and whispering soft words as the teen sobbed into his shirt. 

     "I'm so sorry, Lance."

-^-^-^-

     A few hours later, Lance and Keith were lying side by side, hands intertwined as they did nothing but stare up at the constellations of fake stars on Lance's ceiling. Suddenly, someone knocked on the door, startling them.

    "Yeah?" Keith called, sitting up. 

     Mrs. McClain opened the door and peeked in. "How is he?" she asked, thinking Lance was asleep. 

    "I'm fine, mama. What is it?" Lance said with a sigh, sitting up and leaning back against Keith. 

    "Oh! Well, dinner's ready. Come down whenever you're ready," she said with a small smile before ducking back out of the room.

     Lance groaned and turned slightly, burying his face in Keith's neck. 

     "We don't have to go down yet if you don't want to," Keith said, combing through Lance's hair with his fingers. 

     Lance let out a puff of air, pulling away from Keith. "No, I should probably eat, besides I don't want to keep you from dinner either."

     "You're right that you should eat, but if you need to wait, that's perfectly ok." 

     The brunette shook his head. "No, I'm alright, as long as you don't mind carrying me again." Keith, in response, moved to the edge of the bed and sat in front of Lance, allowing the latter to latch on to his back. They ended up making it down to the table with only one small scare of nearly falling over. 

    Once they had both settled in their seats, Lance noticed how quiet and tense it was. He had to force himself to keep his gaze away from the empty seat across from him. Luis was wordlessly moving his food around his plate with his fork, the boy appearing even smaller and more vulnerable then usual. It was the first time Lance saw Luis since before the accident, the younger boy refusing to leave the house after being discharged from the hospital. It broke Lance's heart to see him like that, especially knowing that he had caused the pain his younger brother now had to live with. 

      Lance looked down and blinked away tears. Keith noticed and laid a hand on his shoulder. "You ok?" he asked softly. Lance cleared his throat and nodded, reaching for the chicken. 

     Suddenly, the front door banged open, and Mr. McClain came stumbling. Mrs. McClain shot out of her seat and told the others to stay put as she went over to her drunk husband. He pushed her away to sit at the head of the table. She scrambled to get a glass, plate, and silverware for him before sitting back down nervously. 

     Lance's father looked up and finally noticed Lance sitting at the table, the man's face scrunching up in disgust. "What is he doing here? I told you, he was not be back in this house!" He stood and slammed his fist onto the table angrily, glaring at Lance. Keith and Mrs. McClain stood, and Isa beckoned Luis out of the room with her, nervously looking back at the group left at table.

     "I... what?" Lance stammered confusedly. 

     "Max, back down," Mrs. McClain warned. "You're going to regret this."

     "No, you know what I regret? I regret letting this moron drive my car with my kids. This punk murdered my daughter!" 

     Keith growled. "How dare you say that! Lance had no fault in that accident. He was hit by another driver and suffered himself because of it!" 

     "And you, what are you doing in my house? I don't need another fag contaminating this place." 

     "That is enough! Now either you stay away from the rest of the family until you're sober, or I will throw you out of this home!" Mrs. McClain shouted. Max scoffed in disgust and begrudgingly got up and left the room. Mrs. McClain sighed in relief, face softening as she turned to her son. 

     "I'm so sorry, Lance. He's  hurting, that's all. It's not your fault," she said. Lance didn't respond. He just stared at the table, shaking as tears rolled down his cheeks. His mother exchanged a look with Keith, before the latter nodded, and she left the room, presumably after her husband. 

     Keith sat down next to Lance. "Lance? Hey, can you look at me?" Lance slowly turned to meet his eyes. Keith smiled in encouragement. "Good. Now, can I touch you?" Lance nodded. Keith slowly reached out and wiped away the teen's tears before rubbing his shaking arms. "You're ok, Lance. You're safe. Max-your dad, what he said wasn't true. You didn't cause Sor-uh, what happened. Ok?" Lance nodded and slowly reached out his arms in a silent request for a hug. Keith smiled softly and wrapped his arms around his boyfriend, rubbing his back lightly. 

     "I got you,  Lance, you're going to be ok. It's going to be hard, but you'll be ok. I'm here."

-^-^-^-

      After the scene at the dinner table, Keith helped Lance upstairs. Lance calmed down a bit, and Keith suggested a spa de-stress-something that had nearly always proved useful for taking Lance's mind off of things. After helping Lance take a half-bath-meaning only his upper half so as to avoid his cast-, Keith got out Lance's facemasks and sat next to him on the bed.

     "Actually, can we maybe not do the facemasks tonight?" Lance asked tentatively. 

     Keith looked at him confusedly. "Of course, but why not? You usually love doing facemasks."

     Lance shrugged. "I don't know. I just... Can we just lie down for a while? 

     "We can do anything you want, Lance. Do you want any water?" Keith asked as he went to put back the facemask stuff. Lance shook his head. He watched as Keith left the room before carefully lying down, trying to get into a position that didn't cause him pain. 

     A minute or two later, Keith came back in, closing the door behind him. "You alright?" he asked. Assuming he meant physically, Lance just shrugged. "Did you take your pain meds?"

     "Yup," Lance replied. Keith went around to the foot of the bed and crawled up to lie next to Lance. The two lay in silence for a while until Lance broke the silence. "Keith?"

     "Yeah?"

     "Thank you." 

     Keith looked over at him. "Hm? What for?"

     Lance looked back at him. "Seriously? You've been taking care of me all day and the days before that, and according to my mom, she had to kick you out of the hospital room when I-er, before I woke up, just so you would keep yourself fed and your mullet from getting too greasy. You don't have to do any of that. So, thank you."

     "Oh. Well, you're welcome."

     The silence came back as the time neared eight-thirty pm. Lance's mind overwhelmed him with guilt and pain. He needed a distraction. It was all getting to be too much.

     "Whatcha thinkin' about?" he asked, turning his head to look at Keith. 

     Keith kept his gaze locked onto the glow-in-the-dark stars on Lance's ceiling and replied, saying, "Remember that time we went to the amusement park with the twins?" 

     Lance "mhm'ed" in affirmation. 

     "You were so worried something bad was going to happen to them that you insisted for us to carry them around the whole time like that. They loved it, too. Even though Sora kept complaining about wanting to walk herself, she told me later that she actually really liked walking around the park like that." Keith looked over and smiled at Lance. 

     Lance smiled back sadly, thinking back to that day. "She loved going to places like that," he said quietly. 

     "No, she loved  _you._ She loved spending time with you." Keith fell silent for a moment and looked away before continuing quietly, "You made her feel special. She knew you loved her."

     Lance was startled by the certainty in Keith's voice. "H-how are you so sure?"

     Keith met his gaze once again and smiled. "'Cause that's how you make me feel too." 

     Lance's eyes widened before his face softened into a smile as his hand found Keith's. "Thank you for being here."

     Keith squeezed his hand. "You already thanked me, but you're welcome."

     Lance shrugged. "Yeah, but I don't know what I would've done without you." 

      Keith smile fell as he realized what Lance meant by that. "You never have to go through that alone, ok? I'm always here, and so is your family."

      Lance nodded. "I know." He lifted their joined hands towards himself and kissed Keith's hand with a soft smile. 

     The two settled into a comfortable atmosphere of just rambling about anything in particular, filling up the empty air. Keith was about to suggest they get ready for an early bedtime, when there was a soft knock on the bedroom door. Thinking it was his mom, Lance called, "Yeah?" 

     The door opened and Luis stepped tentatively inside, keeping his gaze trained on the floor. Lance pushed himself up a bit to lean back against the wall, and Keith sat up. 

      "Hey, buddy, what's up?" Lance inquired. Luis didn't say anything, but instead closed the door behind him and climbed up on the bed, settling himself against Lance's side. Lance hesitated a moment before wrapping his arm around the small boy. It wasn't the first time one or both of the twins had turned to their older brother for comfort. 

      A few minutes of Lance not daring to move much so as not to disturb Luis, the boy was lightly snoring, fast asleep. Lance looked over at Keith and whispered, "Is this ok?" 

      Keith smiled and nodded, pulling the comforter up to cover them as he maneuvered himself, ending up leaning on Lance's other side, head resting on his shoulder. "I love you," he whispered. Lance smiled and kissed him lightly. 

      "I love you too." 

**Author's Note:**

> Lance calls the twins 'dragonettes' because he would always watch the 'how to train your dragon' movies and tv shows with them. [headcannon I made up at the arcade part.]  
> Hopefuly this wasn't complete and utter trash, and sorry if it was a bit rushed. I was trying to get it done in time lol.
> 
> Also,,, sorry for the crappy ending! I was stressing that this wouldn't be done in time so I ended it a bit sooner than I had originally planned.


End file.
